What are your Parish Council doing now?
Meeting with residents about the issue.
The Botley Solar Farm was on the agenda for the first Parish Council meeting following the announcement on 10 Nov. The meeting was well attended and provided a great opportunity for residents to discuss at this early stage.
We will organise a village meeting shortly after the first two Community Information sessions (date TBC), to run as follows:
- Opportunity for invitees to speak. Dominic Hare from Blenheim has already agreed to attend. We will reach out and invite other stakeholders, such as, but not limited to: The Developer, Robert Courts MP, Local councillors
- PC will put questions to invitees, with questions to be submitted in advance or at the start of the meeting
- Residents open discussion
Attending the Community Information Sessions being held by the Developer.
We encourage anyone who has concerns or who just wants to know more to attend any of the sessions and ask questions. This will demonstrate that the community are concerned and engaged. Click here to find out when these sessions are. Please note there is a Community Webinar being held Monday, 5 December from 5.30-7.00pm if you cannot attend a session in person.
Encouraging residents to make themselves heard.
We highly recommend responding to the feedback form (including comments) from the developer. You can find it here.
Robert Courts has written a statement on the proposal and asked for comments from residents. Click here to read and respond to Robert Courts’ statement.
Creating dedicated ways of communicating with residents about the issue.
We have a dedicated email address for this important issue to ensure we can keep track of residents’ comments. bw_consultation@bladon-pc.gov.uk
We will update this area of our website regularly with new information and actions as we progress through this process. Botley West Solar Farm – Bladon Parish Council (bladon-pc.gov.uk
Engaging with Blenheim and other stakeholders.
The PC have regular meetings with Blenheim Palace about a wide range of issues affecting the village. The last scheduled meeting was with Merilyn Davies, Community Officer, just prior to the Parish Council meeting on 10 Nov, and we added the topic of the Solar Farm to the agenda with the objective of conveying the strong feelings already evident in the village and setting up future dialog opportunities.
The PC will contact the Airport about this issue and attend the next Oxford Airport Consultative Committee Meeting
Engaging with all levels of Government.
Representatives from the PC will actively participate in a group being set up by Elizabeth Poskitt from WODC for local parish and town councils, WODC and OCC councillors to ensure alignment of strategy. By acting together, we will be stronger and more effective.
The PC as a corporate body, and individual councillors will respond to the statement made by Robert Courts. We encourage residents to do the same.
Gathering information from multiple sources.
We want to ensure we base our ongoing responses on accurate information, including following how other similar proposals within the UK (such as Mallard Pass in Lincolnshire), as well as the actions of the communities surrounding them, are being conducted.
Engage with a Community Action Group, should one be formed.
We strongly recommend that motivated residents form a Community Action Group. This should be set up and run independently from the Parish Council. However, the PC would commit to work closely alongside and support where appropriate. In addition, if you would like to volunteer to help the Parish Council in our tasks or have expertise to share, please contact the Clerk at bw_consultation@bladon-pc.gov.uk
The deadline for feedback on the FIRST phase (non-statutory) consultation is 15 Dec 2022.
- The PC will respond with clear and reasoned objections.
- We will use all of our communication channels to inform residents about this first deadline and encourage others to respond.
- We will provide guidance for responses, including a brief list of effective points and points to avoid, from a planning perspective, and we can provide a template as a starting point for people who would like to comment but aren’t sure what to write.
After the FIRST PHASE Consultation has ended, we will take stock and plan for how we should engage with and respond to the SECOND PHASE, Statutory Consultation.